I like a bit of telly, and sometimes I want to tell you about some of it, when it's good. The trouble is, we're notoriously awful at doing telly programme threads and then bothering to keep contributing to them. So I'm going to put all of my tellying thoughts in here instead.

Last night I watched two programmes; I caught up with Utopia on Channel 4, and I watched the first episode of series two of Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror, on Channel 4. I'm not certain whether that was episode 4 or episode 5 of Utopia, but either way it's nearing the end of its six-episode whole and it's frankly all over the place. The tone and the visuals are still jarring with each other from one moment to the next, and the brutality seems to have dialled down slightly. Although that might be a consequence of the jarring juxtapositions: your face and brain get so tired and confused hopping between smiling at some slapstick and then recoiling at some horrific violence that you (I) end up simply smiling at everything for convenience's sake. I'm pretty sure that that's no the right way to react to a child being bundled to the floor by armed police though, or some bystanders having their brains shot out for them.

Black Mirror was interesting. I didn't see any of the first series, but I knew to expect a satirical drama extrapolating slightly into the future from our own tech-obsessed world. What I got last night was a gentle drama about grief and about how one woman tries to stave it off, for a while. It mostly starred Hayley Atwell, who I've only seen in Captain America, but who here was a lovely, if sad, lady sliding from distraught grief to that simmering annoyance you get when an ex you used to swoon over keeps cropping up after you've split. She was very good, and portrayed her character sympathetically enough that I wanted her to be happy. So I felt a bit cross that Charlie wrote an ending that left her mildly annoyed and unable to properly move on. Her attempt to deal with impossible grief had trapped her in a stasis of over-but-together. I wanted either a doomy tragic ending or a trite happy ending where the nice curvy lady gets some resolution. Try harder please, Charlie.

Still. Good telly.

Oh, and I deleted Stewart Lee presents Alternative Comedy SomethingOrOther on Comedy Central off my planner, because I watched the first one and discovered that it appears to think it needs to be alternative to amusing :wryface:

Been trying to watch Brain Surgeons on BBC2 of a Wednesday evening (catch up on BBC iPlayer on a Thursday morning whilst the baby has a nap). It's hard watching at times but a good series so far. Filmed at the John Radcliffe in Oxford in the same wing as Mr Maz goes for his Cancer treatments / follow ups.

I struggle to watch medical programme generally. It's bad enough on Superfat vs Superthinny when they show you some big fat dope's ulcerated undercurrents, or on My Misshapen Areas (also with Dr Christian, The Llamanator) when they poke a random rectum with a pencil - but if there's any risk of seeing proper operations and stuff I'm well over on the other channel I'm afraid. I have literally no idea why people would watch Holby or Causality to see exactly the same horrors only made up for fun. Are there operations in the Brain programme? Or is it hard to watch because it's sad?

coolcatmaz wrote:Been trying to watch Brain Surgeons ....catch up on BBC iPlayer on a Thursday morning...I enjoy the documentries.... and the Junior Doctors programme....The Penguin spy in the camp thing the other night.....

Chalmers wrote:Don't know if I can be arsed rushing though, A really fit individual frustrated me at the few days by with confidence revealing that "Any reasonably fit man ought to be able to to do it in less than 45 mins" which was unpleasant....

Chalmers wrote:Don't know if I can be arsed rushing though, A really fit individual frustrated me at the few days by with confidence revealing that "Any reasonably fit man ought to be able to to do it in less than 45 mins" which was unpleasant....

I want a new thing too! All my new things are just my old things come back again, like Walking Dead and Dexter. I thought The Following was going to be my new things, but already I'm beginning to worry that it is going to be the same every week. My planner is chockful of long films all of a sudden, like Inland Empire and Once Upon A Time In Anatolia, but hardly any telly - except Film 2013 and Black Mirror now. But Black Mirror can't be my new thing because there are only two more. New thing!

coolcatmaz wrote:Been trying to watch Brain Surgeons ....catch up on BBC iPlayer on a Thursday morning...I enjoy the documentries.... and the Junior Doctors programme....The Penguin spy in the camp thing the other night.....

coolcatmaz wrote:In general I don't watch much TV

Clever aren't you Yes I watch the Brain Surgeons, Penguin Cam thing and Junior Doctors, that's three programmes a week. That is not much TV so stop quoting out of context to make yourself look clever

Well, obviously last night's telly was all on a romonce theme because it was Valentine's Day, so we sat down together and romantically caught up with The Following. It's a strange series already, even four episodes in, because initial promise faded to trepidation that it was already running out of ideas, but now already hope has sprung because it isn't doing what I was afraid it was going to. It's like watching time lapse footage of nature, with all your reactions to a whole series speeded up and compressed into about three hours. It's not being grim and unpleasant any more either, just sneaky and arguey. Which has its own potential to become annoying of course. A stay of planner execution at least, so we'll see.

We also watched Sarah Millican's programme, you know, for romantic reasons. Sarah Millican talked about Mars bars and tits.